Can your metabolism increase?

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JennaHW
JennaHW Posts: 19 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I was only eating 1000 calories a day before I started losing weight. I had to cut my calories to 600 to lose the first 40 lbs, then I hit a plateau and stopped losing weight. Then I started exercising and after consuming 1200 calories, I'm still hungry. So I drink a lot of water. Why is it that I need to eat more food and I'm losing weight still, when I was eating less than 1000 before. DId my metabolism kick up? Does anyone know? I'm just curious because I feel like I eat a lot of food now. Can your metabolism increase?

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  • 000Linda000
    000Linda000 Posts: 50 Member
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    You metabolism is how much quickly you burn energy. When you exercise, you burn more energy which means your metabolism goes up. But actually, your metabolism didn't change( and if it did, see a doctor) you did.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I was only eating 1000 calories a day before I started losing weight. I had to cut my calories to 600 to lose the first 40 lbs, then I hit a plateau and stopped losing weight. Then I started exercising and after consuming 1200 calories, I'm still hungry. So I drink a lot of water. Why is it that I need to eat more food and I'm losing weight still, when I was eating less than 1000 before. DId my metabolism kick up? Does anyone know? I'm just curious because I feel like I eat a lot of food now. Can your metabolism increase?

    Not your metabolism, which is energy spent on base functions of your body and life.

    You burn X daily, but eat X - 300 say.
    Now you are burning X+300 daily, so now you can eat X+300-300.

    Your maintenance went up because you are doing more now with exercise added. So now you can eat more and still have a deficit.

    I envision one lousy attempt at maintenance though, glad you can get by on so few calories, that's likely your life whenever you diet again.

    Just speaking frankly. If you can do it, good for you. Just be aware any excess calories (and it'll be so easy to do with so little being eaten) at maintenance will be added as fat, as your body strives to protect against the craziness.

    As far as your likely trashed metabolism getting back to a level it could be at - very unlikely.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales?month=201401
  • nicoleisback
    nicoleisback Posts: 184
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    The amount of calories your body needs to survive and function day to day can increase IF you gain muscle. Muscle takes more energy to maintain, therefore more muscle = more energy required. The only catch with this is if you don't feed your body the calories it needs to maintain the muscle, it will start breaking it down for fuel, putting you back to where you started
  • JennaHW
    JennaHW Posts: 19 Member
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    I was barely eating very much before I decided to lose weight. I was never hungry. I wasn't burning much calories either. I could go at least 36 hours without food. My metabolism was barely existent. My friends all told me that it was unhealthy and I should see an endocrinologist. Which I did and they told me my TSH was like 46.7 which was extremely high and I had no metabolism. It wasn't until I started exercising, that I started to get hungry. My TSH is now at 2.57 and being at less than 1 was considered healthy. I thought that maybe my metabolism changed for the better.

    It's kind of nice now to be able to actually eat food and not gain weight, whereas before I would look at food and gain weight and if I ate it, it seem to double up the calories on me.
  • JennaHW
    JennaHW Posts: 19 Member
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    Thank you for replying. I guess I have to do some more research. Oh! I am doing weights as well.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Excellent. Hunger returning is a good sign, you can have that ruined by eating too little.
    Getting more energetic, keep warm better, hair and nails growing better, all signs your body is will to expend some energy on those lower level functions.

    Wait till you see what workouts can change in your body when you eat enough. Body isn't about to make many changes that require more energy use if it's already not getting enough for lower level functions.

    Just to be clear, the only lifting that will ask the body to add more, if diet allows, is progressive overload lifting. Meaning heavy weight for you in 8-12 rep range 2-3 sets. Almost failure to maintain good form. When body is presented that challenge of heavier weight than it can handle, it adapts by getting stronger, eventually adding on more.
    Perhaps by then diet will be over and you can obtain that, but as newbie you can too briefly if some fat to still lose is available.

    Sadly at rest, a lb of muscle only burns about 6 calories a day, though that is 3 x as much as fat burns a day.
    But it's using that muscle through the day that can increase your daily burn.
  • RunMyOregonBunsOff
    RunMyOregonBunsOff Posts: 862 Member
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    Don't feel like you need to lose all the weight you want to get rid of at once. Google your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and your BMR (basil metabolic rate) and try eating about half way between the two. Unless you're like 4 1/5 feet tall you could be doing some major damage by eating less than 100 cals a day. Take good care of yourself. Don't freak out if the scale goes up some with increased calories and honestly, I would even try having a big cheat day (1700+) once every week or two. I'm no expert though.

    PS: I plugged in your age and weight (I went off of what it said on your profile so I don't know how much you lost after you put that on there) into a BMR calculator and at your age and weight (if you were 4 foot 6 inches tall!) your bmr is over 1600 cals a day and everything I have read says not to eat under that number for a long period of time or you put yourself at risk of all kids of bad stuff.

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